Monday, October 5, 2009

Meatless Monday

And it has more than one connection to the city of Baltimore these days.

First, Meatless Monday is a non-profit initiative of The Monday Campaigns, in association with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Second, the Baltimore City Public Schools system has adopted Meatless Mondays. Tony Geraci, Director of Baltimore City Schools Department of Food and Nutrition, led the effort to institute the Meatless Monday initiative. PETA is presenting the BCPSS with a Proggy Award for Most Progressive Public School District of 2009. ("Proggy" is for "progress.")

The school system has also been recognised by the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future and by PETA as the first Meatless Monday school system in the U.S.

Meatless Monday is both something new and something old. There were voluntary meatless days instituted by Presidents Wilson, Roosevelt and Truman during both World War One and World War Two.

While the self proclaimed goal of the current Meatless Monday program, "is to help reduce meat consumption 15% in order to improve personal health and the health of our planet", it was during World War One when the federal government first encouraged families to reduce consumption of key staples, like meat, to help the war effort both in the states and in Europe. Slogans like "Meatless Monday" and "Wheatless Wednesday" were used during both World War One and World War Two.

"By adopting 'Meatless Mondays,' Mr. Geraci is helping students develop healthy eating habits and saving animals' lives at the same time," says PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk. "Baltimore should be proud that its schools are considering how our food choices affect us—as well as the world around us. BCPSS is setting an example that's sure to be followed in school districts across the country."

CLICK HERE to see what else PETA is saying about Meatless Mondays in the Baltimore City Public School System

"The Meatless Monday campaign, initiated in 2003 with Dr. Robert Lawrence and Dean Alfred Sommer, has become a growing international movement of individuals, organisations and communities committed to cutting out meat one day a week for their health and the health of the planet," said Sid Lerner to MeatInternational.com, Chairman of the Monday Campaigns. Michael Pollan, noted food writer, author and professor of journalism at the University of California, Berkeley, commented, "If Baltimore can pull this off, it will be a sign that the effort is worth making!"